Sentences at the beginning of your essay that are used as bait for your readers to grab their attention are referred as hooks. It is very difficult to compel a reader to go through the entire essay or research paper until you make him curious about the content he is going to read.
The concept of hooks is so important that you cannot forget them even when you are writing a research paper on a topic that makes for dull reading for the audiences. Hooks for essays are necessary to hold the attention of the reader for some time so that he goes through entire essay.
Livelier the hook, higher the chances of reading
Of course it is the endeavor of a student to make his essay or research paper lively. Towards this end, students try to include humor, facts and interesting information and even quotes from famous personalities. They also make use of their own thoughts and creativity to keep the interest of the reader alive. But often time, all these efforts are not enough to hold the interest of the reader. This is where good hooks come in handy. These hooks come in early part of the essay to arouse the interest of the reader.
Keep your reader in mind when writing these hooks
Just remember that the essay or the research paper that you are writing is not for you but for the reader. Write it as if you are a reader. When you have the reader in mind, you cut down on rhetoric and boring sentences as you know that your readers would leave reading at the first opportunity that you give to them. Why take a chance and leave it upon the reader to decide whether he wants to read your essay or not? The best way to make sure that your reader reads every single word of your essay is to introduce good hooks in the first or second sentence of the essay.
Hooks for research papers come very early, as early as in the first or second sentence of the introduction. You know that you are introducing your research paper to the reader in this part and this introduction better be very interesting or else your reader would easily choose the option of keeping the copy down. Your reader makes up his mind pretty quickly based upon these hooks whether he should continue or leave the research paper unread.